As to the Pacific/Asia theatre, I'm unconcerned with a pleasure vessel, I have nothing they want and am armed to repel them. I also have the option of taking routes not available to deep draft merchant vessels where those pirates hang out because they are the targets there. The current Caribbean threat against pleasure vessels started with cocaine smuggling and The War On Drugs.
Lot of that in Hawaii too. tons of California guys take their boat to the island thinking it is not too far. Surprise, surprise, surprise!
Amen. This is the only way to solve the problem. Wipe them from the face of the earth without mercy.
Indeed. That makes too much sense for it to ever happen, though. The proper term, BTW, is "letter of marque".
Piracy has been going on since shortly after there boats were invented. I am not aware of any period in history that was devoid of pirates.
Impossible to do. You may wipe out one group but another will simply take its place. Has been that way for thousands of years.
I think some firepower is appropriate. But given that piracy is about 1/2 of one percent of a problem I am sure the real issue has been ROI by the shipping companies on defensive systems. IOW they are will to accept the losses as a cheaper alternative to increasing armament systems.
You do it enough, and one of two things will happen: either people wise up and find other ways to live, or else the population of people who would take up piracy is reduced to zero. Either way, no more problem.
Hasn't worked yet. Just look at history and you can see that. Piracy in the Caribbean was a huge issue of the day for the British. They set out to destroy the pirates and in the end there were still pirates, there are still pirates, and nothing changed. Zero tolerance wars don't work, never have, never will. What you have to do is drive the issue down into the noise. High seas piracy is actually a small problem. The only thing that has changed is that it is being reported on more lately. There is no huge uptick in piracy.
For the victims, it doesn't matter if the issue is down in the noise. They're still just as robbed, just as raped, just as dead.
So, if the media didn't report on it, it wouldn't be a problem any more?
So you want to fund the US Navy or US Coast Guard to accompany every US flagged ship around the world? Or do you just want each cargo vessel to be equipped and staffed like a war ship? Either of those will increase the costs of goods sky high and kill a lot of international commerce.
It is not a major problem now.
I expect a few Q-ships, plus a few heavily armed merchanters, would solve the problem handily.
That wasn't my question. Would it be a problem any more? If it would,t hen what the media reports or doesn't isn't the issue.
Why not? The Left does it all the time.
A Letter Of Marque authorizes a private ship of war to act against a *nation*, not an amorphous group of individuals. A Privateer is expected to pay for its operation through capture of enemy goods and ships...I find it hard to believe a privateer Q-ship could be funded on prize money from the capture of 4-man Zodiac boats....
Some pirate attacks go unnoticed by the crew. In the Straights of Malacca pirates will often board unseen, open cargo containers and remove goods and then leave. So event hose 40 or so attacks a year and not the violent ones that we are reading about lately.
If those motherships are in some nations territorial waters then an act of war will have just been committed. It is a very complex issue that requires complex solutions. Just look back tot he 80's to see what we had to do in the relatively small waters of the Straits of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf to protect oil ships. The cost of that was enormous and was only undertaken because of the serious threat to our national survival had we had oil supplies cut off.
The problem is that there are non SZ people who like to discuss political issues outside of the SZ. Other than that I agree with you. When I see problems peeking up in HT with politics it comes from those that usually are not SZ participants and are almost always people who proclaim that they are here on PoA to NOT discuss politics.
